There is nothing that embodies the idea of "terrible beauty" more than an approaching sandstorm. Here is what these awe-inspiring forces of nature look like, right before they consume the ocean or landscape in blinding clouds.

Lurking beneath Yellowstone National Park is a massive underground reservoir of magma, capped by the park's famous caldera. 640,000 years ago, a super eruption rocked the region. What would happen if another such event blasted the park today? We asked USGS geologist Jake Lowenstern, scientist-in-charge of the…

VOLCANO LIGHTNING. The fusion of flash with ash! Say the words aloud, together, and it sounds impossible – the kind of thing a six-year-old might think up. And yet, volcanic lightning is very real. But how does it happen?

It's been threatening to erupt for weeks, but on the morning of February 19th, Italy's Mount Etna finally blew, spewing rock, lava and gas skyward in what's being called the first big eruption 0f 2013, and among the largest of the Sicilian volcano's major eruptions in close to two decades. The scene was captured on …

In this photograph taken by Cmdr. Chris Hatfield, you can see four volcanoes that are erupting in Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula simultaneously.

Last week, the ESA released unprecedented images of a long, meandering river on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. Most likely the river flows with ethane or methane, and might be slightly viscous like oil. Now, space artist and io9 contributor Ron Miller has created these gorgeous up-close visions of the river from…

Not since we laid eyes on these stunning, Jackson Pollock-esque astrogeological maps have we seen lunar cartography this gorgeous. These colorful, remarkably detailed maps of the Moon's surface are just some of the early data collected by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission — findings…

Peter Jackson relied on two volcanoes to serve as stand-ins for Mount Doom, Tolkein's fiery mountain of fate, while filming The Lord of the Rings: New Zealand's Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu. Now, geologists are warning locals that the latter may be at risk of erupting.

Has Hurricane Sandy sent your running for bottled water and bread? Find yourself mesmerized by the Weather Channel during tropical storm season? You can put your weather fetish to work with Cyclone Center, a new citizen scientist project.

While the eastern seaboard of the U.S. and Canada hunker down and wait for the fury of Frankenstorm to abate, you can rest assured that we've survived worse. In this footage of some of the most terrifying storms ever to hit New England, you can find out what it looks like when major American cities are slammed by…